Menthol is a cooling agent that provides a bitter off-note/aftertaste when used at higher concentrations, which is undesirable for consumers.
Therefore, methods that identify compounds or ingredients, which are able to modulate, and in particular to inhibit or mask, this bitter aftertaste are of interest.
Bitter taste is perceived via taste receptors, and a family of 25 functional bitter taste receptors (TAS2R or T2R) is known. The receptors are broadly tuned to detect thousands of structurally diverse bitter substances, and no obvious shared chemical features can be recognized for the agonists even of single receptors. For example, TAS2R7 is known to respond to various compounds including, for example, chloroquine and quinine and strychnine.
None of these bitter taste receptors had previously been shown to be activated by menthol.